Farmers have threatened to block Britain’s roads unless Rachel Reeves brings down fuel costs, echoing similar protests in Ireland that have crippled the country, leading Dublin to send in the army. The Telegraph has the story.

Farmers For Action, a campaign group, has warned Ministers of protests unless the Chancellor cuts tax on red diesel used for tractors.

Similar protests in Ireland crippled the country last week, forcing Dublin to send in the army.

William Taylor, Farmers For Action co-ordinator, said his organisation had been asked to consider “UK-wide tax and fuel protests”.

He said: “There is huge concern that current policies are failing to address the pressures facing key sectors of the UK economy.”

The threat of protests will add to pressure on Reeves to announce support for drivers on fuel costs. Ireland and Germany both announced tax cuts on Monday.

Farmers For Action was instrumental in organising protests against Reeves’s family farm tax.

The group wants the Chancellor to cut the price of red diesel, which has soared since war broke out in Iran. It is currently as high as 135p per litre, up from 60p per litre before the war.

Each litre of red diesel faces tax of more than 10p per litre. The Government is poised to raise this by a over a penny by the end of the year.

Taylor, who farms in Northern Ireland, said: “There is no common sense to this tax rise, absolutely none.”

He added that “the Government would do well to remember what happened last time”, a reference to protests in 2000 when farmers blockaded six of the country’s largest refineries.

Farmers For Action warned that those protests “brought [the country] to a standstill for five days until government listened – a lot was learnt”.

Howard Cox, the founder of the campaign group FairFuelUK, told the Telegraph: “I am in discussions with farmers and others to hold fuel protests in London and other places as drivers and businesses are sick to death of being used as Labour’s cash cows.

“I have always been against direct action, but I am being bombarded with requests to jointly lead protests in the next few weeks.”

Red diesel and the so-called white diesel available at pumps are the same but the former is chemically dyed to distinguish it for farm use. In the UK, red diesel is taxed at only a fifth of the rate of road fuel.

Motorists are also increasingly frustrated by petrol and diesel costs. On Monday, Fair Fuel UK accused the Chancellor of “doing nothing to help millions of motorists”.

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